


Hanging Things

by PanicFOB



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:08:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21853573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanicFOB/pseuds/PanicFOB
Summary: A tale of Steve's pining.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Hanging Things

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone reading Peerage, I plan to have the final chapter posted either Friday or Saturday. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get to it! Also, I have not abandoned Hack-job, I'm just waiting until after Christmas to focus on that story.

Steve remembers the way the crystal chandelier cast glistening angles of light over their table on the night they first met. He remembers Natasha’s wedding, feeling happy for her like an older brother would his younger sister. Drunk speeches, bad dancing, decent food. Friends. Laughter. Quips. Teasing. Caring. Love.

He remembers finding a table to the back of the reception hall, a lonely place to pass the night away and fondly observe his rambunctious family from a safe distance. And then, he was no longer alone. A woman so striking had pulled out the chair opposite him, sat down, kicked her heels off, and propped her bare feet up on the pristine tablecloth. He’d seen her face before: at an engagement party, at the rehearsal dinner, on the opposite side of the isle from Steve. He still didn’t know her name or exactly who she was in relation to Natasha’s groom.

Steve took down a whole flute of champagne before he finally asked her. It turned out that David, Natasha’s new husband, had an older sister. Steve remembers the way his heart sped up when she told him her name was Y/N. Remembers the way his heart sped up when she let slip that she was single. 

##  *******

Steve remembers lying on the floor of the gym, a punching bag hanging down near his head. Not a sound in the room other than the small puffs created by the air slipping from his lips. They grew more shallow and erratic each time that his mind returned to her. Sweat ran down the edges of his face and dripped to the ground from his defined cheekbones. Not even hours of merciless punching could distract him from her captivating smile.

He remembers vowing to ask Natasha about her.

##  *******

But he didn’t have to. It was completely by accident that when he showed up to help Nat and David move into their new house, Y/N was there as well. Steve tried to keep his eyes from lingering in inappropriate places as she carried in box after box beside him, wearing the shortest of shorts and the lowest cut tank top. Steve remembers wracking his brain for interesting and clever things to say, but instead blurting out idiotic things about the weather.

They finished the unpacking by dinnertime, and Natasha insisted they both stay for pizza. He remembers that by this point, he’d had no intention of asking her out because he was sure she would turn him down.

They left at the same time, and it was on Nat and David’s front porch, under a hanging pot of trailing green ivy that Steve stopped and asked her to go out sometime.

Steve remembers the regret in her eyes as she said no. She told him she was moving to Europe next month.

##  *******

At a different house, Sam’s mother’s to be precise, Steve sat on another porch and told his best friend about the one that got away. He’d known her for all of an instant, but she’d imprinted her presence on him. He remembers the way Sam insisted that they’d surely see each other again, but Steve wasn’t hopeful. He was devastated.

Steve’s belly was overfull from a home cooked meal that Sam’s mother had forced down their throats. He remembers stretching out across the swinging wooden bench as melancholy overtook him, and a feisty night wind made the hideous hanging wind chimes clang madly.

##  *******

He remembers that when he saw her next, he really should have expected it, but he was caught completely off guard. It was years later, at a welcome home party for an adopted baby boy. A newborn, rightfully placed in the arms of Natasha and David. Steve was there to meet his new nephew, just like all the rest of the team. He should have known that Y/N would fly back from Europe for this as well.

After hours of opening bags of little baby onesies and eating cake that turned everyone’s lips baby blue, most of the guests filtered out. Natasha asked Steve and Y/N if they wanted to help put their nephew to bed; Matty was his name. Steve remembers feeling his eyes light up, and then looking to Y/N and seeing that same sort of awe and adoration in hers. They followed Nat together to his crib. She placed him down, and they all watched as Matty slowly stopped his fussing and dozed off. Between them, a mobile of hanging origami birds spun slowly.

Steve wanted to beg her to move back, for in all those years, he had not forgotten her, had not stopped longing for her. But he remembers the way his lips felt sealed shut and he watched her walk out the door to get right back on a plane the next morning.

##  *******

Another year went by, and Steve only remembers glimpses of it. Talking to women at different bars, going dancing, feeling infinitely lost. He tried. He really tried to move on, but each moment spent at Nat’s house when David is mentioning something Y/N did when they were children is salt in the wound. He wanted to hear these stories spill from Y/N’s lips, not her brothers.

And so, on the dates that Steve did go on, he felt nothing short of underwhelmed.

It made Matty’s first birthday party that much more exciting. Steve remembers knowing for a fact that she would be there. He dressed in his best clothes. He styled his hair. He bought Matty the best gift he could find at the toy store.

Steve stood there stupidly with his mouth full of birthday cake, aluminum balloons hanging over his blond head as Y/N made the announcement that she was moving back to New York for good.

He remembers that he didn’t even bother to swallow his cake before he blurted out, “Will you go out with me?”

##  *******

He remembers all of this as he walks her home from dinner. He thinks it’s gone well, but he can’t know for sure until he’s ended the night on a perfect note. It’s mid-December, and he’s already draped his thick coat around her shoulders to fight the chill. Steve thinks he needs to do something more though, to really make a lasting impression on her. To ensure that she calls him again for a second date.

Steve decides he needs something hanging, like a marker on their relationship. It’s close to Christmas, so he isn’t surprised when he spots a bit of mistletoe hanging in the doorway of a 24-hour café. He leads her to it, and she looks at him with confusion for the slightest of seconds before glancing up and then giving Steve a knowing smile. It’s under that dangling holiday plant that they share their first kiss, and Steve feels enough enthusiasm behind the press of her lips to know that they’ll be going out together again soon.


End file.
